DISCOGRAPHY

Mr Nutley's Strange Delusionarium

1. Clap Now: An observation on popular culture, the ethic of ‘If it sells it must be good’. A bit like soap powder or the latest throwaway chart hit. Originally mooted as the second Dept S single, having been recorded by Mott The Hoople duo Dale Griffin and Pete Watts. Their version sadly rejected by the record company: ‘A great piece of art lads but not a single’. Continues to be a crowd favourite.

2. Monte Carlo or Bust: A balls out slab of knuckle dragging punk rock’n’roll. One of the first Dept S songs, written in the days of the band being called Guns for Hire. Listen out for sample of version recorded with Dale and Pete.

3. My Coo Ca Choo: This is where it all began...again, after a few bottles of red wine in Soho the plan was hatched to record this song and see if there was any interest in taking things forward. While doing a radio interview Herbage was informed by the DJ that he had Alvin Stardust on the show the week before and he said how much he liked our version!

4. Age Concern: Opening with a sample of the original demo for the song, before blasting into the 2011 version, this song investigates the age old concerns of growing old and the relationship between youth and beauty and the losing thereof.

5. Ode to Koln (The stench of War): Perhaps the heaviest song written by Dept S, this song tells the tale of a war prisoner’s last journey to his death in a Nazi prison camp. This version explores new textures and rhythms and sounds all the more haunting for it.

6. Wonderful Day: A tale of an individual’s catastrophe while the rest of the world moves on as normal. This was the first self penned song of the new era Department S. The single was recorded in Tony Visconti’s studio in Soho where David Bowie and Marc Bolan recorded some of their greatest works.

7. Going Left-Right: The second Dept S single and a big departure from the first. This version see’s the song progress even further with a twin guitar attack that arcs between psychedelic freak out and panzer division crushing of the sensibilities. A look at the regimentation of battery thinkers,who would follow the crowd, even if it were over a cliff. Play it very loud.

8. Is Vic There?: Interpreted here as it should have been recorded 30 years ago. Recorded (like all the tracks on the album) totally live, this version crackles with punk rock intent, brisling with paranoia and raging guitars. The first Dept S single.

9. I Want: The 3rd Dept S single and the least successful of the original line up (though happily a European No.1), I Want is considered by the band to be one of its most accomplished songs. The original features horns by the John Barry Set, this live version has turned it into a tour de force for audiences across the UK and Europe. Noddy Holder was 100% wrong about this one.

10. Slave: There are times when there is a tension between two people but for complicated reasons it never gets released......a true story has elements changed to protect the guilty......This song was not originally going to be on the LP as we had only played it twice in rehearsal, just before packing up for the day we ran through it again as we wanted to play it at The Rebellion Festival in Blackpool, lucky Kev kept the tape rolling.

Mr Nutley’s Strange Delusionarium – A document of Department S as a live unit in 2011. It is here to draw a line under the past and open the door to the next phase of the group’s progression, whilst offering the listener powerful reinterpretations of a fine back catalogue that maybe wasn’t heard by as many people as it should have been. This aint no nostalgia trip, this is the foundation for unfinished business to finally see the group vindicated as an accomplished band of musicologists in 2012.

Produced by Kevin Feazey.

SUB-STANCE

LTM (2003)

The definitive Department S collection featuring the unreleased 1981 album Sub-Stance together with all tracks from their 3 UK singles as well as previously unheard live and demo tracks. Digitally remastered in 2002.